Zhu Pengyu

Zhu Pengyu's name entered wider circulation in November 2024, when he rose highest in the 90th minute to head home against Shanghai Jiading and send Dalian Yingbo up to the Chinese Super League. It was the defining moment of a debut professional season that had begun that March, and it followed years working through Dalian's own football pipeline before he signed for the club on a free transfer.

In China League One that year he contributed five goals and four assists across 25 appearances. He has carried that scoring habit into age-group football for China, where he has been a consistent presence: twelve goals in 15 caps at Under-19 level, and further goals at Under-22. Two braces stand out from that spell — both scored against Mongolia during the 2024 Panda Cup, in the group stage and again in the semi-final — along with a substitute's double against Kyrgyzstan at the 2025 Under-20 Asian Cup.

He has since progressed to full senior international recognition, earning his first cap for China in 2026. Before any of that, back in 2017, he was named best player at the Friedrich Cup youth tournament in Germany, an early marker of the reputation he built through Dalian's youth teams and schools before turning professional.

The club itself has changed name more than once during his time there, playing as Dalian Duxing and then Dalian Zhixing before becoming Dalian Yingbo, the identity under which Zhu made his breakthrough and continues to play.